Second “John Doe” lawsuit filed

February 14, 2014

An attorney filed a personal injury lawsuit this week on behalf of a former Oconee County student alleging that a former teacher-coach sexually abused the boy when he was a student in the late 1990s. It’s the second time that attorneys have filed civil complaints against Richard Trey Gardner III, who went to prison last year. As in the case filed last October, this complaint uses the pseudonym John Doe to identify the plaintiff. It contains allegations of gross negligence. Besides Gardner, the suit names three other defendants: the Oconee School District and two of its other employees. The suit, filed by St. Paul, Minnesota attorney Gregg Meyers, alleges the abuse by Gardner began in 1997 when the plaintiff was 12 years old. It claims that, at one point, Gardner used school district equipment to produce video and photographs of the boy and then uploaded pornographic images and sent them to email addresses. The defendants are given 30 days to formally respond to the allegations.